1. Field
The following description relates generally to wireless communications and more particularly to adapting number of transmit antennas based on requirements of users in a wireless communication system.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as, for example, voice, data, and so on. Typical wireless communication systems can be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, . . . ). Examples of such multiple-access systems can include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and the like. Additionally, the systems can conform to specifications such as third generation partnership project (3GPP), 3GPP long term evolution (LTE), ultra mobile broadband (UMB), and/or multi-carrier wireless specifications such as evolution data optimized (EV-DO), one or more revisions thereof, etc.
Generally, wireless multiple-access communication systems can simultaneously support communication for multiple mobile devices. Each mobile device can communicate with one or more base stations via transmissions on forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from base stations to mobile devices, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from mobile devices to base stations. Further, communications between mobile devices and base stations can be established via single-input single-output (SISO) systems, multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, and so forth. In addition, mobile devices can communicate with other mobile devices (and/or base stations with other base stations) in peer-to-peer wireless network configurations.
A MIMO system employs multiple (NT) transmit antennas and multiple (NR) receive antennas for data transmission. A MIMO channel formed by the NT transmit and NR receive antennas may be decomposed into NS independent channels, which are also referred to as spatial channels, where NS≦min{NT, NR}. Each of the Ns independent channels corresponds to a dimension. The MIMO system can provide improved performance (e.g., higher throughput and/or greater reliability) if the additional dimensionalities created by the multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized.
A MIMO system supports a time division duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD) systems. In a TDD system, the forward and reverse link transmissions are on the same frequency region so that the reciprocity principle allows the estimation of the forward link channel from the reverse link channel. This enables the access point to extract transmit beamforming gain on the forward link when multiple antennas are available at the access point.
In addition, several advancements are currently being considered for an LTE advanced system, such as Multi User MIMO, higher order MIMO (with 8 transmit and receive antennas), Network MIMO, femto cells with Restricted Association, Pico cells with range extension, larger bandwidths, and the like. LTE advanced has to support legacy UEs (LTE release 8 UEs) while providing additional features to new UEs (and legacy UEs when possible). However, supporting all features in LTE can place cumbersome constraints on LTE advanced design and limit the possible gains. In general, any such feature should be carefully considered with respect to impact to new UEs.